9 Things You May Not Know About the Declaration of Independence - History in the Headlines 9 Things You May Not Know About the Declaration of Independence July 4, 2012 By Elizabeth Harrison Share To many in the Continental Congress, war was unthinkable. So why did they finally create this revolutionary document? Share this: 9 Things You May Not Know About the Declaration of Independence Author 9 Things You May Not Know About the Declaration of Independence URL Google Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, celebrates the adoption by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. On the 236th birthday of the United States, explore nine surprising facts about one of America’s most important founding documents. 1. The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776. On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. The delegates then spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

On July 4, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, and as a result the date is celebrated as Independence Day. Nearly a month would go by, however, before the actual signing of the document took place. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July 9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in favor of independence. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”—written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, but several—Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean and Matthew Thornton—signed on a later date. (Two others, John Dickinson and Robert R. Livingston, never signed at all.) The signed parchment copy now resides at the National Archives in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, alongside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 2. More than one copy exists. After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the “Committee of Five”—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston—was charged with overseeing the reproduction of the approved text. This was completed at the shop of Philadelphia printer John Dunlap.

On July 5, Dunlap’s copies were dispatched across the 13 colonies to newspapers, local officials and the commanders of the Continental troops. These rare documents, known as “Dunlap broadsides,” predate the engrossed version signed by the delegates. Of the hundreds thought to have been printed on the night of July 4, only 26 copies survive. Most are held in museum and library collections, but three are privately owned. 3. When news of the Declaration of Independence reached New York City, it started a riot. By July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence had reached New York City. With hundreds of British naval ships occupying New York Harbor, revolutionary spirit and military tensions were running high. George Washington, commander of the Continental forces in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall. A raucous crowd cheered the inspiring words, and later that day tore down a nearby statue of George III. The statue was subsequently melted down and shaped into more than 42,000 musket balls for the fledgling American army. 4. Eight of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in Britain.

While the majority of the members of the Second Continental Congress were native-born Americans, eight of the men voting for independence from Britain were born there. Gwinnett Button and Robert Morris were born in England, Francis Lewis was born in Wales, James Wilson and John Witherspoon were born in Scotland, George Taylor and Matthew Thornton were born in Ireland and James Smith hailed from Northern Ireland. 5. One signer later recanted. Richard Stockton, a lawyer from Princeton, New Jersey, became the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to recant his support of the revolution. On November 30, 1776, the hapless delegate was captured by the British and thrown in jail. After months of harsh treatment and meager rations, Stockton repudiated his signature on the Declaration of Independence and swore his allegiance to King George III. A broken man when he regained his freedom, he took a new oath of loyalty to the state of New Jersey in December 1777. 6. There was a 44-year age difference between the youngest and oldest signers. The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin, 70 years old when he scrawled his name on the parchment.

The youngest was Edward Rutledge, a lawyer from South Carolina who was only 26 at the time. Rutledge narrowly beat out fellow South Carolinian Thomas Lynch Jr., just four months his senior, for the title. 7. Two additional copies have been found in the last 25 years. In 1989, a Philadelphia man found an original Dunlap Broadside hidden in the back of a picture frame he bought at a flea market for $4. One of the few surviving copies from the official first printing of the Declaration, it was in excellent condition and sold for $8.1 million in 2000. A 26th known Dunlap broadside emerged at the British National Archives in 2009, hidden for centuries in a box of papers captured from American colonists during the Revolutionary War. One of three Dunlap broadsides at the National Archives, the copy remains there to this day. 8. The Declaration of Independence spent World War II in Fort Knox.

On December 23, 1941, just over two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the signed Declaration, together with the Constitution, was removed from public display and prepared for evacuation out of Washington, D.C. Under the supervision of armed guards, the founding document was packed in a specially designed container, latched with padlocks, sealed with lead and placed in a larger box. All told, 150 pounds of protective gear surrounded the parchment. On December 26 and 27, accompanied by Secret Service agents, it traveled by train to Louisville, Kentucky, where a cavalry troop of the 13th Armored Division escorted it to Fort Knox. The Declaration was returned to Washington, D.C., in 1944. 9. There is something written on the back of the Declaration of Independence. In the movie “National Treasure,” Nicholas Cage’s character claims that the back of the Declaration contains a treasure map with encrypted instructions from the founding fathers, written in invisible ink. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

There is, however, a simpler message, written upside-down across the bottom of the signed document: “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.” No one knows who exactly wrote this or when, but during the Revolutionary War years the parchment was frequently rolled up for transport. It’s thought that the text was added as a label. Tags JAH Roundtable The Declaration of Independence in Spanish As much as they partake of similar historical momentum, it is difficult to compare the declarations of independence of the United States and Mexico. My goal is simply to outline essential facts and ideas in order to explore basic differences between the two founding documents of 1776 and 1821. News of the English colonies' independence had resonance in the Spanish territories, including New Spain (later called Mexico), but mostly as an event. In papers that Mexican insurgents published in 1810 and later, they mentioned George Washington and the United States as models and hoped for plentiful aid. But they did not read the document signed July 4, 1776.

We have to consider that even after the United States took possession of the Louisiana Territory in 1804, when the United States and New Spain became neighbors, the notions they had of each other were very vague. It is significant that the Constitution of 1787 was published in 1812 in New Spain, although only after 1823, when the Mexican Empire, the first independent postcolonial government of Mexico, had failed and a republic was chosen as the form of government, could it be considered of great importance. 1 In the 1820s a flurry of publications indicated increased interest in American institutions. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 was printed by José María Luis Mora in 1821 in his influential liberal newspaper Semanario Político, Económico y Literario.

Mora expressed his wish to publish documents "relating to the first revolution on the continent." The first document published was the declaration of the representatives of the United States of North America, July 6, 1775 (the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms), followed by the declaration of July 4, 1776, and several constitutions. He announced that printing those documents was important in view of the upcoming meeting of the Mexican Congress in February 1822. Mora did not offer any particular remarks about the Declaration of Independence. 2 The writings of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier and Vicente Rocafuerte, enthusiastic publicists of the American system, began to circulate as a way to combat the Mexican Empire. 3 And, indeed, during the 1823 and 1824 debates in the Mexican Congress, American institutions became the center of attention, and thus began their idealization. Of course, we can detect the use of similar language in the two documents, both of which were influenced by a global liberal context. But that similarity does not demonstrate that the earlier, United States declaration helped shape the later, Mexican one.

The historian David Brading has insisted that, in spite of the cultural debts resulting from Spanish America's cultural liaison with Europe, Spanish Americans "succeeded in creating an intellectual tradition that, by reason of its engagements with the historical experience and contemporary reality of America, was original, idiosyncratic, complex, and quite distinct from any European model" -- and of the United States model, I would add. 4 By the mid-eighteenth century, in North America there were thirteen small English colonies, two large French colonies, and the enormous and prosperous viceroyalty of New Spain. In the profitable trade of the Caribbean, Mexican silver played an important role as an instrument of exchange. But the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763) disrupted that order. One aftermath of the Seven Years' War was the failure of France and Spain to limit the growing economic predominance of Great Britain. As a consequence of the war, France was almost excluded from the Americas. But the war also bankrupted all three powers. This forced them to impose new taxes and to modernize their imperial systems.

New taxes and new institutions for fiscal control were established, which produced the malaise that led to independence in the Americas (and the revolution in France). Interpreting the fiscal and administrative changes as violations of their constitutional rights, leaders of the English colonists reacted immediately. They were sensitized by their knowledge of law and politics. A long debate with the English Parliament took place within the context of the Enlightenment, with glimpses of classical thought, the radical writers of the seventeenth century, and the entire spectrum of Protestantism. This helped the thirteen colonies to "discover" a unified identity based on their experience and grievances. The radicalization of their position in debate with Parliament culminated in the Declaration of Independence. The road to independence in Spanish America was quite different. The arrival of the Bourbons on the Spanish throne in 1700 meant extensive French political and intellectual influence. Jansenism and the Enlightenment were spread throughout the Spanish Empire in spite of the Inquisition and produced a form of thought that was Catholic with neo-Thomist hues. French and other European writers were also read throughout the empire, but their influence surfaced later, when the break with Spain was occurring.

In the New World, such Spanish thinkers as Melchor Gaspar de Jovellanos and Francisco Martínez Marina were widely read and quoted. Both of these enlightened Spaniards stressed the existence of a historical constitution -- the "democratic" medieval Spanish institutions derived from the Visigoth period. This constitution assured that the Spanish monarchy had to listen to the Cortes, which included representatives not only of the church and nobility but also of the cities. This was a status quo that had been infringed since the sixteenth century by the Habsburgs. 5 The focus on Spanish history elicited a great concern over such Spanish legal documents as the Siete Partidas and the Recopilación de Leyes de Castilla, still in effect in the eighteenth century, and in the Americas, the Leyes de Indias. Therefore, while the movement toward independence was preceded in English America by a present-mindedness that re-imagined the future, in Spanish America it was preceded by an innovative reconsideration of the past. These new ideas flourished in New Spain within a context of nascent "nationalism" that had as its central symbol the Virgin of Guadalupe.

This identification, born in the sixteenth century, developed during the eighteenth when people in the kingdom of New Spain became more aware of the greatness of the Aztec empire and felt pride in its prosperity and its great past. The preference for calling themselves American Spaniards was the way the Creoles, Spaniards born in the colonies, expressed their sense of this new identity. But the "vague creole patriotism," what the historian Brian Hamnett has called, "Creole identity based on common interest, local authority, religion, pride in the Aztec past," really developed during the wars of independence. 6 After their ascent to the Spanish throne, the Bourbons undertook the "modernization" of the bureaucracy in order to strengthen the Crown and to restore the old glory of the Spanish Empire. But the defeat suffered by Spain in the Seven Years' War made it urgent to transform the bureaucracy, not only to generate income, but also to reverse the incorporation of New Spain into a system of world trade that centered on Britain. 7 The goal was to transform the American possessions into real colonies. Toward the mid-1760s, measures known as the Bourbon reforms were implemented.

The visitador José de Gálvez arrived in Mexico City in 1765, just after the arrival of military troops that were sent to create a Spanish army in the viceroyalty. In 1767 the first drastic measure carried out was the expulsion of the Jesuits, and New Spain lost some of its most outstanding intellectuals and educators. A series of innovations followed: new taxes, state monopolies, an end to the practice of having fleets convoyed by warships, free commerce within the empire, a new territorial division of the viceroyalty through the creation of the intendencias, replacement of part of the old bureaucracy by a professionalized one in charge of collecting taxes and controlling the royal treasury. Not all the innovations were negative, but many disturbed local interests. To strengthen the Crown, privileges formerly granted to corporate groups and the church were annulled. The prevalent regalism, that is, the Spanish monarchy's control of the church, made that institution the favorite target of the Bourbons: The clergy was taxed, and the religious orders were removed from parishes and replaced by diocesan clergy. The reforms produced discontent, because they destroyed the virtual autonomy that Spanish America had enjoyed until the mid-eighteenth century.

American Spaniards considered them a violation of traditional order; thus the reforms had "a consciousness raising impact." 8 But the process of independence took longer in New Spain, "the most precious jewel of the Spanish Crown," than elsewhere in Spanish America because of closer ties with the metropolis and the prosperity that the kingdom enjoyed. All social groups were affected and resented the new taxes, the state monopolies, and the economic prohibitions. The old Spanish bureaucracy lost significant authority; the Creole elite saw with dismay how their access to representative positions and high dignities was limited. The Consulado de México, the union of merchants, resisted free-trade policies. And the popular classes reacted violently to the expulsion of the Jesuits and the tobacco monopoly. They did not interpret the measures as a conspiracy against the American provinces, but as the transgression of government officials against the old pact. They had recourse to the justice of the king. In this traditional practice, the ayuntamiento (council) of Mexico City prepared a document to the king, protesting the exclusion of Creoles from the administrative organs ordered by Galvez. The document sent to Carlos III in 1771 by the municipal authorities was a long description of their traditional rights.

Frequently in the past, Creoles had claimed their rights as descendants of the conquerors, but in 1771 they invoked both principles of natural justice and Crown and church legislation currently in effect. They insisted that any attempt to deprive American Spaniards of high office in their own countries was "to seek to transform the derechos de gente [common law]"; they phrased in traditional terms their right to participate in their own government. Insisting that the European-born were foreigners in the land, they rejected being considered inferior to them and claimed their suitability to serve in any high position in the kingdom. They were better informed about the land and its conditions, and as inhabitants of New Spain, their service could not only save the high costs of bringing over Spaniards but also prevent corruption, as they were not so eager to make a fortune in a few years as the Spaniards. 9 The document expressed American resentment toward the European Enlightenment's negative judgments about America and Americans (appearing in the works of naturalists and men of letters such as William Robertson, Corneille de Pauw, the abbé Guillaume Raynal, and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon).

It also demanded respect for concrete traditional rights, different from the abstract rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789. During the 1770s and 1780s, prosperity eased the malaise produced by the reforms, as did Creole pressure and the viceroy's relaxing the measures. But by the 1790s, the constant involvement of Spain in wars (among them the American Revolution) increased financial demands and led to bankruptcy. The Crown placed heavy burdens on her richest kingdom, New Spain; it imposed more taxes on the entire population as well as voluntary and forced loans. But it was the Crown's 1804 appropriation of ecclesiastical funds -- by which it hoped to amortize its debts -- that produced indignation, because the funds served as a bank for ranchers, miners, and merchants. The appropriation not only left the kingdom without credit but also forced the debtors to repay their loans inmediately. New Spain had lost its luster; decapitalized and impoverished, it started to suffer a deep general discontent.

The grievances of the kingdom multiplied, and Americans began to express openly their desire for autonomy. They considered the sending of Mexican silver to Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Floridas, and the Philippines as an unfair drain of their resources. They resented being treated as colonies, insisting on their status as kingdoms of the Crown, equal to those on the peninsula. The collapse of Spain's Bourbon monarchy in 1808 presented the Creoles with the opportunity to reflect on their lack of representation and on the measures to be taken in the new situation. Startling news reached New Spain: Carlos IV had abdicated in favor of his son Fernando VII, and later both abdicated their rights in favor of Napoleon Bonaparte. The ayuntamiento of Mexico City, the most representative body in the kingdom, faced the absence of a legitimate king, the possibility of being invaded and ruled by the "heretical French," and the issue of what those events meant for New Spain. Based on contractual theory, the council maintained that because American kingdoms were ruled by the Crown, which no longer existed, the nation had recovered its sovereignty. Meanwhile, Spain was fighting for its own independence against Napoleon.

The juntas (congresses) established in the peninsula sent representatives to New Spain to ask for recognition and support. The members of the ayuntamiento refused to recognize the peninsular juntas. The Peruvian-born Fray Melchor de Talamantes defended the right of the kingdom of New Spain to convene its own national junta with representatives from the military, the clergy, the audiencia (the chief organ of royal judicial authority in the viceroyalty), the ayuntamientos, and other corporations. The ayuntamiento believed that such a junta ought to decide how to govern while Fernando VII remained a captive of the French. Some of the proposed solutions were radical, but rooted in the Spanish legal tradition. The viceroy went along with the idea of a congress, but the bureaucracy and the audiencia, controlled by people born in Spain, did not accept it, and declared: "In the present state of things, nothing has altered the nature of legitimately established authority, and all should continue as it has until now." 10 The result was a coup d'état by the audiencia against the viceroy and the leaders of the ayuntamiento, who were imprisoned.

European Spaniards interrupted the peaceful movement and showed the road to violence. A rebellion with popular participation exploded in September 1810 with the uprising led by the priest Miguel Hidalgo. Meanwhile, in Spain the juntas merged into a Supreme Central Junta that through a decree of January 22, 1809, proclaimed "that the vast and precious dominions that Spain possess in the Indias, are not colonies nor factories like those of other nations, but an integral part of the monarchy." 11 This was in fact a recognition of the equal status that American territories had. Although the decree did not specifically mention the American kingdoms, it recognized part of the traditional American argument. In May, Spanish Americans were called to elect deputies to the Spanish Cortes (1810 - 1814). The predominance of liberals (a word used for the first time in this forum) in the Cortes, with the influence of the French Constitution of 1791, led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 placed sovereignty in the "nation," defined as "the union of all Spaniards of both hemispheres," with all having the right to representation in the Cortes in the peninsula. The debates in the Cortes provided a political experience for the American deputies and the publication of the constitution spread liberal ideas. Some Americans were satisfied with the rights and representation granted, but others considered the constitution a modification of their traditional rights, a new form of metropolitan supremacy. During the rebellion, the insurgents radicalized their aims of social reform. Hidalgo issued a decree in 1810 abolishing the tribute paid by the Indians and black slavery, remarkable measures if compared with the American Revolution. The insurgent leaders in New Spain considered the United States as a natural ally because of its former colonial status. They expected aid in the form of arms, munitions, and volunteers. They sent several agents, but the only one who was able to get to Washington and be received by the secretary of state in 1812 was disappointed when he discovered the expansionist intentions of the United States.

Both the United States and Britain were interested in the independence of Hispanic America, but Mexico did not receive the support that the thirteen colonies found in France and its ally, Spain. The United States tried to avoid giving Spain any pretext for helping the British during the War of 1812, and later on, its leaders were interested in assuring possession of the Floridas. 12 In Mexico the desire to create a separate sovereign state was clear in 1813. The congress meeting in Chilpancingo issued a very brief Act of Independence, promising to maintain the Catholic religion and announcing recovery of "its usurped sovereignty" under "the present circumstances in Europe" and "the inscrutable designs of Providence." The constitution enacted in 1814 reflected Spanish and French influences and included a program of social reform. To achieve social equality, José María Morelos, Hidalgo's successor, at the inauguration of the Congress had recommended enacting laws that would "moderate opulence and indigence." 13 While rebellion continued in the Americas, in Spain upon the return of Fernando VII in 1814, the constitution was annulled. This action eroded the prestige of the Crown in New Spain even more.

But by 1820 peace seemed restored in New Spain. A military coup d'état against absolutism in Spain offered Mexicans a new opportunity with the restoration of the Constitution of 1812, freedom of speech, the right of representation, and the liberation of imprisoned rebels. But unease returned to New Spain. Out of the long war between supporters and opponents of independence from Spain that had raged since 1810, a totally transformed New Spain emerged. The disruption of life meant that by 1820 everyone was eager to restore order and was convinced of the inevitability of independence. Both former rebels and loyalists were thinking of the advantages of joining in a common effort. The man who took the lead was Agustin de Iturbide, a Creole from the royal army who had distinguished himself in the war. As a Creole, he favored New Spain's autonomy, but he rejected the insurgent violence. He was convinced of the possibility of accomplishing independence through an alliance of the two opposing parties, together with the people's support. Vicente Guerrero, the main leader of the insurgency, realized that his isolated position made success very difficult.

Iturbide was able to convince Guerrero to accept the alliance and on February 24, 1821, enacted his Plan of Iguala, declaring the separation of New Spain. The plan identified all the inhabitants of New Spain as Americans, regardless of their race and place of birth. Under the influence of Dominique de Pradt, who had argued that American independence was an inevitable consequence of the maturation of colonies, Iturbide considered the dissolution of empires as natural. From this point of view, despite the generosity of pious Spain, the emancipation of New Spain was necessary and inevitable. 14 Success was complete. With hardly any violence, by August most of the country had endorsed the Plan of Iguala. At that time, the new jefe político Juan O'Donojú, named by the liberal Cortes, arrived in New Spain. O'Donojú realized that independence was a fact. Thus he signed the Treaty of Córdoba with Iturbide, recognizing the independence of "the Mexican Empire," to be governed by a prince of the Bourbon dynasty.

After the capitulation of the Spanish troops that occupied Mexico City, on September 27, 1821, Iturbide, Guerrero, and O'Donojú presided over the festivities for the establishment of the new state. On September 28, the Act of Independence of the Mexican Empire was signed. The rhetoric of the act had a less moderate tone than that of the Iguala plan. The wording of the act showed the influence of liberal Spain and France but maintained traditional New Spain views that interpreted the conquest as a loss of original liberty. The short document -- three paragraphs -- began: "The Mexican nation, which for three hundred years has neither had its own will nor free use of its voice, today leaves the oppression in which it has lived." The deed, thanks to the "heroic efforts of its children," had been consumated by the memorable enterprise began at Iguala. "Restored to all its recognized and sacred rights, the Mexican nation is free to constitute itself through its representatives, in any way convenient to its happiness." The Supreme Imperial Junta declared that Mexico was a sovereign nation, independent from old Spain.

15 The act expressed "Creole patriotism," with its predominant historical and religious forms of address "all cast in a particular, rather than a universal mode." 16 But the universalist sentence of the American Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal," was not a novelty for Spanish Americans. Long before, during the sixteenth-century debates over the conquest of the indigenous people of America, the Thomist thinkers Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, and Francisco Suárez emphatically supported the equality of men. The purposes of Mexican independence sharply contrasted with those of the independence of the United States. While in Mexico the emphasis was on concrete goals of social reform and form of goverment, in the United States the goals were phrased in the language of abstract principles and social aspects were discussed much later. In the United States the principle of a societal democracy was forgotten when the 1787 Constitution legalized slavery. In Mexico, equality had been legally acknowledged since the beginning of the independence movement. The problem was how to incorporate it into the social and political realm. The independence of the United States was a paramount point of reference for the rest of the continent.

The Mexican Declaration of Independence, however, was not a reflection of any particular document or the product of a direct and single American or European influence. It was rather the culmination of a long process of change during the viceroyalty of New Spain, a change in search of autonomy and sovereign rights. The words were liberal, but the content sometimes traditional. Josefina Zoraida Vázquez is professor of history at El Colegio de México. 1. For an apostrophe to George Washington, see El Despertador Americano (Guadalajara), Dec. 20, 1810: "Washington . . . que tiene encantados nuestros corazones con el admirable conjunto de sus virtudes populares y republicanas." (Washington . . . how our hearts are haunted by the admirable totality of your popular and republican virtues.) For one to Americans, see ibid. , Jan. 11, 1811: "¡ Americanos del Norte! . . . Tú eres nuestro Amigo más seguro, el Aliado más fiel que nos ha dado la naturaleza, estableciendonos en un mismo continente.

Tu eres nuestro modelo y nuestro recurso, tus intereses son nuestros, de ti esperamos los más prontos y abundantes socorros." (Americans of the North! . . . You are our surest friend, the most faithful ally that nature has given us, placing us on the same continent. You are our model and our resource, your interests are ours, from you we hope for the quickest and most abundant help.) See also La Avispa de Chilpancingo (Chilpancingo), no. 3, 1821. El Diario de México (Mexico City), Oct. 23 - Nov. 7, 1812, pp. 2579 - 94. 2. Semanario Político, Económico y Literario (Mexico City), Nov. 28, 1821 - Jan. 9, 1822. The Declaration of Independence is printed ibid. , Dec. 12, 1821. The intention to publish the French Constitution of 1791 and others and their relevance to the Mexican Congress are announced ibid. , Jan. 23, 1822. 3.

For the theory that America was providentially destined to be republican and extensive quotations from Common Sense by Thomas Paine, see José Servando Teresa de Mier Noriega y Guerra, Memoria politico-instructiva enviada desde Filadelfia en agosto de 1821 á los gefes independientes del Anáhuac (An educational political memorandum sent from Philadelphia in August 1821 to the independent leaders of Anáhuac) (Philadelphia, 1821). 4. David Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492 - 1867 (New York, 1991), 5. 5. See Richard Herr, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958), 341 - 45; and Raymond Carr, Spain, 1808 - 1975 (New York, 1982), 93, 526. 6.

Brian Hamnett, "Process and Pattern: A Re-examination of the Ibero-American Independence Movements, 1808 - 1826," Journal of Latin American Studies, 29 (May 1997), 279 - 328. 7. Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th - 18th Century (2 vols., New York, 1979), I, 261. 8. Hamnett, "Process and Pattern," 284. 9. "Representación que hizo la ciudad de Mexico al rey C. Carlos III en 1771 sobre que los criollos deben ser preferidos a los europeos en la distribución de empleos y beneficios de estos reinos" (Remonstrance that the city of Mexico made to King Carlos III in 1771 arguing that Creoles ought to be preferred to the European-born in the distribution of the public offices and benefices of these kingdoms), in Colección de documentos para la historia de la guerra de independencia de México (A collection of documents on the history of the Mexican War for independence), ed. J.

E. Hernández y Dávolos, vol. I (Mexico City, 1877), 427 - 55. 10. "Voto consultivo del Real Acuerdo sobre la representación del Ayuntamiento de Mexico" (Advisory vote of the Real Acuerdo on the memorial from the Ayuntamiento of Mexico), in Documentos históricos mexicanos (Mexican historical documents), ed. Genaro García (Mexico City, 1985), 11, 57. 11. Manuel Dublán y José María Lozano, Legislación mexicana o colección completa de las disposiciones legislativas expedidas desde la independencia de la República (Mexican legislation; or, a complete collection of legislative measures since the independence of the republic), vol. I (Mexico City, 1876), 326 - 27. 12. Arthur P. Whitaker, The United States and the Independence of Latin America, 1800 - 1830 (Baltimore, 1941), 65 - 97. 13.

Brading, First America, 580 - 81; Ernesto de la Torre Villar, Moisés González Navarro, and Stanley R. Ross, Historia documental de México (Documentary history of Mexico), vol. II (Mexico City, 1964). 14. "Americanos; bajo cuyo nombre comprendo no solo a los nuestros en America, sino a los Europeos, Africanos y Asiaticos, que en ella residen." (Americans -- under which name I include not only our own people in America but also the Europeans, Africans, and Asians who live here.) Guadalupe Jimenez Codinach, Planes en la nación mexicana (Plans for the Mexican nation), vol. I (Mexico City, 1987), 125. See Dominique de Pradt, The Colonies and the Present American Revolution (London, 1817). 15. Jimenez Codinach, Planes en la nación mexicana, I, 129. 16. Brading, First America, 601. Independence Hall - Independence National Historical Park (U.S.

National Park Service) Independence Hall Independence Hall, Chestnut Street facade NPS photo Independence Hall is the birthplace of America. The Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were both debated and signed inside this building. The legacy of the nation's founding documents - universal principles of freedom and democracy - has influenced lawmakers around the world and distinguished Independence Hall as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Construction on the building started in 1732. Built to the Pennsylvania State House, the building originally housed all three branches of Pennsylvania's colonial government. The Pennsylvania legislature loaned their Assembly Room out for the meetings of the Second Continental Congress and later, the Constitutional Convention. Here, George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in 1775, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and Benjamin Franklin gazed upon the "Rising Sun" chair in 1787. There is much history to explore - from the Georgian architecture , to Peale's Museum, to fugitive slave hearings - in addition to the founding of the nation. Planning a visit? Learn more about hours, tickets and programs. The Assembly Room The Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were both signed in this room.

Later, the room became a shrine to the founding of the nation, proudly displaying the Liberty Bell and original paintings of the Founding Fathers. That was the scene when President-elect Abraham Lincoln visited the Assembly Room and praised the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Following his assassination, Lincoln's body lay in repose here for two days. Visitors today can ponder their own role in the on-going experiment in self-government. Courtroom on the first floor of Independence Hall. NPS photo Courtroom of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania sat in this room in the 1700's. On July 8, 1776, an act of defiance occurred here when a group of Pennsylvania militiamen stormed in and tore down British King George III's coat of arms. A hundred years later, visitors came to this room during the Centennial to experience the National Museum, a collection of artifacts celebrating the founding of the nation, Long Gallery on the second floor of Independence Hall NPS photo Long Gallery The Long Gallery on the second floor of Independence Hall served as a reception area for visitors meeting with Pennsylvania's governor. It was also the scene of dinners and celebrations.

During the British occupation of Philadelphia, the Long Gallery became a hospital for wounded American prisoners of war. Later visitors to this room marveled at Peale's Museum, one of the earliest museums in America. Governor's Council Chamber on the second floor of Independence Hall. NPS photo Governor's Council Chamber Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council met in this room in the 18th century. Later use of the room includes U.S. District Court, the scene of fugitive slave trials in the 1850's. Displayed on the table today is the surveyor's tool used by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to determine the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Declaration of Independence - American Revolution - HISTORY.com Declaration of Independence A+E Networks Introduction When armed conflict between bands of American colonists and British soldiers began in April 1775, the Americans were ostensibly fighting only for their rights as subjects of the British crown. By the following summer, with the Revolutionary War in full swing, the movement for independence from Britain had grown, and delegates of the Continental Congress were faced with a vote on the issue.

In mid-June 1776, a five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence–written largely by Jefferson–in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence. Google Before the Declaration of Independence Even after the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did–like John Adams– were considered radical. Things changed over the course of the next year, however, as Britain attempted to crush the rebels with all the force of its great army. In his message to Parliament in October 1775, King George III railed against the rebellious colonies and ordered the enlargement of the royal army and navy. News of his words reached America in January 1776, strengthening the radicals’ cause and leading many conservatives to abandon their hopes of reconciliation.

That same month, the recent British immigrant Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” in which he argued that independence was a “natural right” and the only possible course for the colonies; the pamphlet sold more than 150,000 copies in its first few weeks in publication. Did You Know? Most Americans did not know Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence until the 1790s; before that, the document was seen as a collective effort by the entire Continental Congress. In March 1776, North Carolina’s revolutionary convention became the first to vote in favor of independence; seven other colonies had followed suit by mid-May. On June 7, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence before the Continental Congress when it met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution and called a recess for several weeks. Before departing, however, the delegates also appointed a five-man committee–including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts , Roger Sherman of Connecticut , Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R.

Livingston of New York–to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. That document would become known as the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson Drafts the Declaration of the Indpendence Jefferson had earned a reputation as an eloquent voice for the patriotic cause after his 1774 publication of “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” and he was given the task of producing a draft of what would become the Declaration of Independence. As he wrote in 1823, the other members of the committee “unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught [sic]. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections….I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress.” As Jefferson drafted it, the Declaration of Independence was divided into five sections, including an introduction, a preamble, a body (divided into two sections) and a conclusion. In general terms, the introduction effectively stated that seeking independence from Britain had become “necessary” for the colonies.

While the body of the document outlined a list of grievances against the British crown, the preamble includes its most famous passage: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The Vote for Independence The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, and the following day 12 of the 13 colonies adopted Lee’s resolution for independence. The process of consideration and revision of Jefferson’s declaration (including Adams’ and Franklin’s corrections) continued on July 3 and into the late morning of July 4, during which Congress deleted and revised some one-fifth of its text. The delegates made no changes to that key preamble, however, and the basic document remained Jefferson’s words. Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence later on July 4 (though most historians now accept that the document was not signed until August 2).

As the first formal statement by a nation’s people asserting their right to choose their own government, the Declaration of Independence became a significant landmark in the history of democracy. In addition to its importance in the fate of the fledgling American nation, it also exerted a tremendous influence outside the United States, most memorably in France during the French Revolution . Together with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights , the Declaration of Independence can be counted as one of the three essential founding documents of the United States government. Tags Declaration of Independence: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) Our Documents, Declaration of Independence , National Archives and Records Administration Selected Bibliography Armitage, David. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. [ Catalog Record ] Boyd, Julian P. The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text. Rev. ed. Charlottesville: International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello in association with the Library of Congress, 1999. [ Catalog Record ] Dupont, Christian Y., and Peter S. Onuf, eds. Declaring Independence: The Origin and Influence of America’s Founding Document.

Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library, 2008. [ Catalog Record ] Ferris, Robert G., ed. Signers of the Declaration: Historic Places Commemorating the Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: United States Department. of the Interior, National Park Service, 1975. [ Catalog Record ] [ Full Text ] Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904. [ Catalog Record ] [ Full Text ] Gerber, Scott Douglas, ed. The Declaration of Independence: Origins and Impact. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2002. [ Catalog Record ] Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997. [ Catalog Record ] Shain, Barry Alan, ed. The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context: American State Papers, Petitions, Proclamations, and Letters of the Delegates to the First National Congress. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.

[ Catalog Record ] Younger Readers Fradin, Dennis B. The Signers: The Fifty-Six Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence. New York: Walker, 2002. [ Catalog Record ] Freedman, Russell. Give Me Liberty!: The Story of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Holiday House, 2000. [ Catalog Record ] Gragg, Rod. The Declaration of Independence: The Story Behind America’s Founding Document and the Men Who Created It. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 2005. [ Catalog Record ] Graves, Kerry A. The Declaration of Independence: The Story Behind America's Founding Document. Philadelphia: Chelsea Clubhouse, 2004. [ Catalog Record ] Raum, Elizabeth. The Declaration of Independence. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2013. [ Catalog Record ] Rissman, Rebecca. The Declaration of Independence. Minneapolis: ABDO Publishing Company, 2013. [ Catalog Record ]

Question: In which city was the American Declaration of Independence signed?
Answer: Philadelphia